Example histogram using pareto distribution. by curran

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style>

body {
  font: 10px sans-serif;
}

.bar rect {
  fill: steelblue;
  shape-rendering: crispEdges;
}

.bar text {
  fill: #fff;
}

.axis path, .axis line {
  fill: none;
  stroke: #000;
  shape-rendering: crispEdges;
}

</style>
<body>
<script src="//d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js"></script>
<script>

// Math from
// //www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/books/ftp/ch5f_slides.pdf
// Page 32
function pareto(alpha){
  return function(){
    return 1 / Math.pow(Math.random(), 1 / alpha);
  };
}

// A formatter for counts.
var formatCount = d3.format(",.0f");

var margin = {top: 10, right: 30, bottom: 30, left: 30},
    width = 960 - margin.left - margin.right,
    height = 500 - margin.top - margin.bottom;

var x = d3.scale.linear()
    .domain([0, 5])
    .range([0, width]);
  

// Generate a set of random values with a Pareto distribution.
var values = d3.range(1000).map(pareto(1)).filter(function(d){
  
  // Exclude values outside the fixed domain.
  return d <= x.domain()[1];
});

// Generate a histogram using twenty uniformly-spaced bins.
var data = d3.layout.histogram()
    .bins(x.ticks(20))
    (values);

var y = d3.scale.linear()
    .domain([0, d3.max(data, function(d) { return d.y; })])
    .range([height, 0]);

var xAxis = d3.svg.axis()
    .scale(x)
    .orient("bottom");

var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg")
    .attr("width", width + margin.left + margin.right)
    .attr("height", height + margin.top + margin.bottom)
  .append("g")
    .attr("transform", "translate(" + margin.left + "," + margin.top + ")");

var bar = svg.selectAll(".bar")
    .data(data)
  .enter().append("g")
    .attr("class", "bar")
    .attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + x(d.x) + "," + y(d.y) + ")"; });

bar.append("rect")
    .attr("x", 1)
    .attr("width", x(data[0].dx) - 1)
    .attr("height", function(d) { return height - y(d.y); });

bar.append("text")
    .attr("dy", ".75em")
    .attr("y", 6)
    .attr("x", x(data[0].dx) / 2)
    .attr("text-anchor", "middle")
    .text(function(d) { return formatCount(d.y); });

svg.append("g")
    .attr("class", "x axis")
    .attr("transform", "translate(0," + height + ")")
    .call(xAxis);
  
</script>